The Scarlet Letter

By Nathaniel Hawthorne, Bri Hermanson (Illustrator)

A woman bears a scarlet letter, concealing secrets that could unravel lives in Puritan Boston.

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64 pages

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Bookroo's summary

In 17th-century Boston, Hester Prynne stands on a scaffold, marked by a scarlet letter and holding her child. Her secrets could destroy lives: the identity of her child's father and her absent husband. As tensions rise, will Hester reveal the truth, or will vengeance and hidden sins dictate their fates? The struggle between redemption and retribution unfolds, leaving Hester, her lover, and her husband at the mercy of divine and dark forces. Can love and truth prevail in a world governed by strict moral codes?

From the publisher

Hester Prynne stands defiantly on a scaffold before hostile Puritans in seventeenth-century Boston, Massachusetts. The baby in her arms and the bright scarlet letter ‘A’ on her gown are evidence and punishment for the shame she has brought on her religious neighbors. Will Hester continue to conceal the name of the husband who sent her away from Europe years before as well as that of the father of her baby? Will the husband get his revenge on the man who has shamed him? Will that man admit his past and join Hester and her daughter Pearl? Or is the matter out of their hands, waiting to be decided between the forces of the Lord and of Satan? Real Reads are accessible texts designed to support the literacy development of primary and lower secondary age children while introducing them to the riches of our international literary heritage. Each book is a retelling of a work of great literature from one of the world’s greatest cultures, fitted into a 64-page book, making classic stories, dramas and histories available to intelligent young readers as a bridge to the full texts, to language students wanting access to other cultures, and to adult readers who are unlikely ever to read the original versions.

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